A Connecticut medical examiner has released the cause of death for 23-year-old Lauren Smith-Fields.
On January 25, CBS News reported that the coroner determined that the young woman’s death was from an accidental – but lethal combination of fentanyl and liquor. A toxicology report revealed that Lauren had traces of fentanyl, promethazine and hydroxyzine in her system.
Her family plans to sue the city of Bridgeport for its mishandling of the woman’s death. They’ve also requested an independent agency investigate her death. Her parents and other family members accused the city of Bridgeport of not doing its due diligence regarding investigators’ approach to the query of what happened the night she died.
The family’s attorney, Darnell Crosland, compared the lack of care regarding’s Lauren’s death to that of Gabby Petito’s (a 20-something white woman who went missing and received national attention only to find her boyfriend had murdered her in Arizona during a cross-country road trip.)
“It’s happening all too often with Black girls missing across this world, across this country, and no one says anything,” he said. “When a white woman goes missing, the whole world drops everything. We are done with this valuation.”
Crosland added, “We’re suing the city of Bridgeport for failure to prosecute and failure to protect this family under the 14th Amendment.”
The 14th amendment gives Black American citizenship, equal rights and protections under the Constitution. It was adopted in 1868- post-Civil War.
Lauren was found dead in her apartment under suspicious circumstances on Dec.12, after meeting a white man on Bumble. At the time, an unidentified white man called authorities disclosing that Lauren needed medical assistance. According to the family, Bridgeport police downplayed the young woman’s death. Police officers never took the man into custody or questioned his involvement.
Lauren’s father, Everett Smith, described the detective working on the case as “very insensitive, condescending and arrogant.”
Her brother, Lakeem Jetter, alleged that police told him there was no need to investigate the man because he appeared nice.
In an incident report obtained by Crosland, the man identified as Matthew LaFountain was the last person to see Lauren alive. He claimed that the college student asked him for money to get her nails done. Before her death, the two met at her apartment, where they drank shots of tequila. LaFountain alleged that Lauren became sick and threw up. They continued the date, played games and even had a meal.
LaFountain claimed Lauren received a text from her brother and went outside to get something from him. When she returned to the apartment, he alleged she went to the bathroom, where she stayed for 10-15 minutes.
“He thought it was odd but didn’t feel it was his place to say anything as he didn’t know her that well,” the officer wrote in the report.
The police report and LaFountain’s statement didn’t match what her family said, and it apparently never raised suspicions of LaFountain’s account. The officer even noted that the man’s behavior was “frantic.”
Lakeem refutes the claim that he texted his sister that night. The family also claimed that Lauren had just gotten her nails done, so she wouldn’t have needed to go to the nail salon.
“I haven’t texted my sister since December 4. I didn’t know that anybody was in there. She came out, and she was out there for like 10-15 minutes, and she walked back into the house. She looked normal. She didn’t look sick. She didn’t look tired. She didn’t look drunk. I’m her second older brother, if I would have seen her drunk, I would’ve said, ‘What are you doing?’… ‘Why do you look like that?'”
LaFountain claimed that after they watched the movie– Lauren fell asleep on the sofa, and he carried her to her bedroom and got in bed with her. Upon waking up at 3 a.m., LaFountain stated that Lauren was snoring as he went to the bathroom. At 6:30 a.m., he acclaimed the woman was lying on her right side, bleeding from her nose and not breathing.
The engineer reportedly called the police. They arrived and notified the landlord, who tried to contact her family to no avail. Lauren’s mother, Shantell Fields, only found out her daughter was dead after not hearing from the young woman for days. The landlord had left a note that she discovered once she went to check on Lauren physically.
“If you are looking for Lauren, please contact this number,” it read.
On Dec.12, the police report also indicated that police took Lauren’s passport, cellphone, $1,345.00 in cash and keys. However, when the family returned to Lauren’s apartment to clean it three days after her funeral service (December 29), they discovered a used condom with ejaculate in the trash, bloody sheets, lube, and an unidentified pill.
“The first night, we saw cups there, flipped plates and the lube. The cops didn’t take any of the cups to test the liquor,” Lakeem said. “There was a big stain of blood in the middle of her bed, with streaks going to the right side.”
The first officer on the case, Detective Cronin, is accused of ignoring the family and not being cooperative. Complaints were filed against him.
Detective Garcia took over and allegedly told the family Cronin was useless and that he would help them. He also told the family said he was “unprofessional.”
“He said, F**k Cronin. He got kicked off the case. He’s a f*****g asshole,” Shantell recounted. “He then called himself, reassuring me, saying that he was Puerto Rican, so he was on my side and telling me how he has daughters.”
“When I mentioned that [‘F**k Cronin’] in the interrogation room, he turned into a maniac. He said, ‘I would never talk bad about another colleague,’ and I said ‘you’re lying,'” said Fields.
A spokesperson for Bumble reached out in support of Lauren’s family. The dating app released a statement.
“We are deeply saddened by news of Lauren Smith-Fields’ death and have reached out directly to the family to offer support,” a spokesperson for Bumble told Rolling Stone. “We stand ready to provide appropriate assistance and information as requested by law enforcement. The safety of our community is our priority, and we will continue to work day in and day out to keep our members safe. We have a dedicated team who responds to requests for information from law enforcement authorities around the world.”
There has been outrage from activists and celebrities as well.
On January 24, Cardi B tweeted about the man who was last with Lauren. Previous stories had presented LaFountain like he was an older man when he was in his 30s.
“Naa. This man don’t look old, and it’s not old at all, and yet the media made it seem like she was wit a old ass man lookin’ to trick on her. I’m disgusted on how they spin the narrative, specially because I see people saying online, “that’s wat she gets,” she wrote.”
Naa this man don’t look old and it’s not old at all and yet the media made it seem like she was wit a old ass man lookin to trick on https://t.co/2btR6XvluQ disgusted on how they spin the narrative specially because I see people saying online “that’s wat she gets” pic.twitter.com/JeEwY6tYaY
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) January 23, 2022
Lauren’s family started a GoFundMe to raise money to investigate their loved one’s death independently. The fundraising site has raised over the $50,000 ask. The highest donation was $2,500.
LaFountain is still not a suspect at this time. We are praying that Lauren and her family receive justice.
